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October 14, 2009
Exclusive: The Mortal Crisis of the U.S. Military’s Individual Personal Weapons Today
This week, I reviewed a forward of a definitive report on the immoral crisis confronting our serving military soldiers and officers in the U.S. Army, the Marine Corps and the SEALS coming from the appalling performance of their personal side arms, rifles, and crew served automatic weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. The PowerPoint was absolutely the most comprehensive of its kind I have ever seen, with 175 pages of snapshots of specific performance and non-performance of virtually every weapon in our national inventory. This report came on the heels of a battle last week in Afghanistan in which a strong point was overrun by Taliban terrorists, resulting in the deaths of nine U.S. soldiers and 27 wounded.
How did this happen? Their weapons jammed with moderate use, they fouled, they overheated, and they just plain didn’t perform to the levels for which they were reportedly tested. In the name of a tainted bureaucracy, our men and women exposed to close combat are being given second-rate, inadequate weapons that may save chump change, but only at the price of unnecessary deaths of our most valuable assets – our people.
Weapons failures in the M9 (Beretta) Pistol, the M4 assault rifle, the Squad Automatic Weapon (known as the SAW), and the M249 30 Caliber Machine Gun, along with four other key weapons in the U.S. arsenal, are happening with far too much frequency, bordering on consistency. A weapons specialist named Jim Schatz has produced this absolutely comprehensive report from what has to be an intimate knowledge of the needs of individual soldiers and combat teams. What he presents is a pattern of abuse of process that dates all way back to the founding of this nation.
Everyone in the military and more has heard about the M9 throwing slides, cracking frames, stove-piping, jamming from fine powder sand getting into parts, and more. Schatz recites not just these problems, but shows superior weapons used by our potential enemies that literally embarrass the United States with their functionality, durability, and much, much more – including their ability to penetrate body armor.
The M4’s (nothing more than a tricked out M16 from the Vietnam era) jamming and overheating problems are now legendary. The AK is vastly superior to either of these weapons and cheaper, and its design is now over 60 years old. Schatz presents weapons ranging from the AK-47 and AK-74, to the Dragonov, to the VSS Vintorez, to the H&K 416, the Gyurza 9x21mm pistol (the firearm of choice of the Russian FSB/KGB), to the H&K Model 8, etc., that are superior to every arm they would compete with or might replace. I have personally fired these weapons with only two exceptions, and I can tell you that they are superior in every way to what is being carried by our conventional forces, excepting Special Operations personnel.
I know which ones I would take if it came down to a choice. You have to disassemble a SAW to clear a Jam. Want to try that in a firefight? We need to get weapons to our men and women that don’t jam, don’t misfire, don’t overheat, don’t break down (the stories of trying to clear a jam on the SAW are disgraceful), and more.
There is a reason better weapons exist: They are better weapons, more durable, easier to keep in operation, require little or NO cleaning, don’t jam, etc. Simply look at the latest generation of weapons from the SIG 556, to the H&K 416, the H&K MP-23 pistol, etc., to the new Israeli weapons, to the new AA-12 shotgun, and you will know the answer. That is why SIGs, H&Ks and other comparable weapons from the Israeli’s exist and are doing well with the elite professionals, and vivid reasons why some of our own developers should replace what we have in service.
What human price do we put on our combat soldiers’ lives? I say the potential marginal costs of a fully reliable and serviceable weapon are not just irrelevant, they should not even be a consideration. In fact, almost without exception, the weapons of our enemies are less expensive than those we choose to field. There is no excuse for that.
Would we pay an extra $100 a weapon for one that would save one life? How about 10 lives? What about 1,000? Our ordnance bureaucracy has to be staffed by men who know weapons at the survival level, not by bureaucrats. Bureaucrats produced the Stryker. How many men have died to vet this screw-up? If politicians get in the way, replace them.
It is time for everyone to send e-mails, snail mails, and make phone calls to their representatives before this goes any further.
This has the potential to embitter our already overloaded combat troops pulling multiple tours. I say, enough!
Click here to read the full report.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor C. Austin Burrell is a corporate finance generalist with over 30 years of Wall Street and related experience. He was a senior derivatives specialist and development stage company investment banker for more than 35 years on Wall Street.He is a 1968 Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and a graduate of the Army’s Finance Officer Advanced Course.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (2)
This scares the heck out of me when I think of all the loved ones that I know are fighting for our country.
Yes, we need to hammer our representatives with our calls and emails.
Dear Sir: Thank you for bringing this very serious and important problem to the attention of a wider audience in your continued service to our country...and as I'm certain you know, the problems in procurement etc don't stop there...
Keep up the good work...
Mike
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